Description: The specific epithet ‘granulosa’ describes the texture of this common moorland, soil-inhabiting lichen which also favours tree stumps, recently burned ground and upended piles of plant debris. The greenish-grey to yellow-grey spreading patches can reach 10cm across but what is of note is the coarse granular crust, warted and uneven when thick and cracked into a mosaic of areoles when dry. Usually scattered over the surface are erupted soralia (a rash of coarse, pale-yellowish granular powder: a mixture of fungal hyphae and algae). Discs relatively large: pink-brown to grey with thick margins and darker centres. A drop of fresh bleach (C) will turn it red. This species lacks the bright orange patches of its lookalike T. pseudogranulosa.

Key Identification Features:

• Greenish-grey to yellowish coarse granular crust, (C+ orange) spreading over soils and consolidated plant debris
• Usually sprinkled with coarse soralia and discs, which, if present, have thick ‘elastic’ margins and dark centres. Bright orange patches are absent.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

Distribution Map from NBN: Trapeliopsis granulosa at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Trapeliopsis granulosa at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.